Documents filed in federal court detail secret dealings of bribery and scheming involving a former El Paso County Judge and his co-defendant who pleaded guilty Thursday.

Lorenzo Hilario Aguilar pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and deprivation of honest services, two days after former El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos also pleaded guilty to the same charge.

U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo said Thursday that he intended to follow prosecutors' recommendation to sentence Aguilar to four years in prison, the same sentence Cobos is to get.

REPORTER

Adriana M. Chávez

The trial for Cobos and Aguilar had been scheduled to begin Monday before Montalvo. During Aguilar's plea hearing, Montalvo told Aguilar about 100 prospective jurors were at the federal courthouse on Wednesday to fill out questionnaires.

Montalvo ordered prosecutors to determine a restitution amount to be paid by Cobos, Aguilar and four others who have pleaded guilty in connection with the case -- former city Rep. Raymond R. Telles, El Paso lobbyist and political consultant Antonio "Tony" Dill and former Bear Stearns representatives Roberto "Bobby" Ruiz and Chris Pak.

The six men are scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving. Each remains free on bond.

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The relationship between the six men is outlined in a 10-page document called a factual basis, which was made public following Aguilar's hearing.

That document paints a picture of secret meetings in Austin, friendships used to offer bribes, two bagmen, an envelope with $8,000 in cash, an all-expenses paid trip to New York City and a brazen demand for more bribe money.

According to the factual basis, this is what unfolded:

Ruiz began working in the investment banking industry in 1990. He met Aguilar in the mid-1990's and the two became friends and business associates, and Ruiz eventually asked Aguilar for his help in influencing local politicians in order to obtain business.

In 2002, investment banker Hector Zavaleta Jr. moved to El Paso and became the financial advisor for several local government agencies, including El Paso County. Zavaleta and Ruiz developed an alliance to further their business objective: Ruiz would support Zavaleta for a financial advisor position, and once Zavaleta became a financial advisor, Zavaleta would recommend Ruiz and Ruiz's company as the underwriter for the issuance of new bonds or the refinancing of old bonds. Pak, who worked with Ruiz at the same firm, was responsible for finding opportunities for governments to pay lower interest on their issued bond debt.

Telles, an attorney who met Ruiz in the late 1990's, served as Ruiz's "bag man" by delivering cash bribes to elected officials to secure financial underwriting work for Ruiz's firm, with the expectation Ruiz would hire Telles as the underwriter's counsel.

Dill worked for Aguilar and Aguilar's architectural firm, Perspectiva, and served as Cobos' campaign manager in 2006 during Cobos' bid to become county judge. Cobos was elected in November 2006 and took office on Jan. 1, 2007.

The factual basis states Dill received $1,500 from Aguilar on Jan. 31, 2007, "for the purposes of influencing Cobos to hire Ruiz and his company to refinance county bonds and to fire Zavaleta as the county's Financial Advisor."

The money was paid after a Jan. 16, 2007, conversation between Ruiz and Zavaleta at a West Side bar. During the conversation, Zavaleta told Ruiz he longer wanted to participate in "bribing elected officials to obtain financing and refunding contracts with governmental entities," the factual basis states. Ruiz became angry and told Zavaleta that "if they stopped paying bribes, they risked losing the majority of their business."

Ruiz, according to the factual basis, decided he couldn't trust Zavaleta and began working to have Zavaleta fired "and replaced with someone who Ruiz could control."

By this time, Pak had discovered that a lucrative refunding opportunity existed involving about $40 million of bonds at the county. Pak told Ruiz, and Ruiz told Telles. Ruiz and Telles agreed that Ruiz should seek the underwriting contract for the El Paso County Bond Refunding Project, and Telles would be hired as underwriter counsel.

Ruiz and Pak traveled to El Paso on Jan. 15, 2007 to begin lobbying for votes to secure the contract.

On Jan. 31, 2007, Ruiz met with Aguilar to get his help, and learned Aguilar used Dill as a "lobbyist" for Aguilar's business interests. According to the factual basis, Ruiz said that Aguilar described Dill as Cobos' "bag man," and Ruiz "understood that all or part of the money paid to Dill would go to Cobos for his vote."

Aguilar also told Ruiz to hire Dill as a "consultant" because of Dill's close relationship with Cobos. Following instructions from Aguilar, Ruiz withdrew $5,000 from a bank account and placed the cash in an envelope in Aguilar's office. Aguilar wrote a check to Dill for $1,500 on behalf of Ruiz.

Aguilar later met with Dill on Ruiz's behalf and quoted a price of $1,500 a month to help Ruiz get Cobos' support in hiring Ruiz's firm, and to arrange a meeting between Ruiz and Cobos.

On Feb. 7, 2007, Ruiz met with Dill and Cobos in Austin. During the meeting, the factual basis states, Cobos asked Ruiz if Ruiz was "working with" Dill and "taking care of him." When Ruiz told Cobos he was, Cobos told Ruiz "that as long as he took care of his (Cobos') friends, Ruiz could work at the County."

After the meeting, Ruiz met with Dill at a hotel in downtown Austin, where Dill told Ruiz, "Bobby, you see, I can get you in with the Judge, but to really do this deal I'm gonna need an extra $5,000 on top of the $1,500 a month."

According to the factual basis, Pak remembered Ruiz telling him, "We are in" at the county. Ruiz later sent three checks for $1,500 each to Telles and made out to Dill, who had been named as a "consultant" at a business Ruiz's father owned in an effort to minimize any association between Dill, Cobos and Aguilar.

On Feb. 15, 2007, Ruiz again traveled to El Paso to meet with Aguilar, but before the meeting, Ruiz went to a West Side bank and cashed two personal checks: one for $3,000, and another for $5,000.

After talking with Aguilar, Ruiz agreed to pay Dill the extra $5,000 under the belief Dill was going to pass on a portion of the money to Cobos. Ruiz and Aguilar also agreed to pay Dill an extra $3,000 for Cobos' "support and assistance." The cash was left at Aguilar's office.

On Feb 16, 2007, Ruiz met with El Paso Independent School District trustee Sal Mena, who told Ruiz he had recently confessed to FBI officials about bribes he accepted from Ruiz. Ruiz eventually told Zavaleta and Telles, who asked Ruiz if he "wanted to continue his pattern of making bank and ATM withdrawals when he visited El Paso."

Ruiz and Telles returned to Aguilar's office to retrieve the $8,000, but discovered there was only $6,800 left in the envelope.

According to the factual basis, Ruiz remembered he had authorized Aguilar to pay another elected El Paso County official $1,000. (That official was not named) Telles deposited the remainder of the cash into Ruiz's account.

On March 16, 2007, Cobos and his chief of staff Travis Ketner met with Telles and Ruiz at Cobos' office at the El Paso County Courthouse. The four men went to lunch, and when they returned to Cobos' office, Telles handed Cobos a $500 cash bribe in an envelope.

According to the factual basis, "Telles took the envelope out of his pocket and when Cobos saw it, he grabbed it and placed it inside his jacket pocket." Telles told investigators he paid the bribe in order to obtain the underwriter's counsel position.

At the same meeting, Ruiz offered to take Cobos and Ketner to New York on a "pricing trip" after the sale of the debt refinancing bonds for the county.

"It was understood by all parties that this trip would serve as a bribe/gratuity to influence Cobos to vote in favor of Ruiz's company," the factual basis states.

Cobos and Ketner did not go on the trip.

In April 2007, Ruiz and Pak returned to El Paso and left $1,500 in cash at Aguilar's office for Dill, with the understanding Dill would deliver the money to Cobos. Dill told investigators when he received the envelope, there was $1,000 inside.

"Dill also received instructions the money was for Cobos to support Ruiz as the underwriter, Telles as counsel and a new person to be Financial Advisor for El Paso County," the factual basis states. "No evidence shows that Cobos received this money."

But after Dill received the money, an item was posted on the El Paso County Commissioners Court agenda concerning the removal of Zavaleta as the county's financial advisor.

On April 16, 2007, the court voted 3-2 to terminate the county's financial advisor agreement with Zavaleta and his company.

Cobos has not made any statements about the case but when his office was raided by the FBI in 2007, he challenged the FBI to find something on him.

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